ISK  UNIVERSITY 

NASHVILLE,  TENNESSEE 


FOUNDED  1866 


2 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 

"CMSK  UNIVERSITY  was  founded  by  the  American  Mission- 
ary  Association  in  1866.  It  was  cradled  in  the  hospital  bar¬ 
racks  that  had  been  abandoned  by  the  Federal  Army.  It  received 
its  name  from  Gen.  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  who  at  the  time  was  stationed 
at  Nashville  as  chief  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  for  Tennessee  and 
adjoining  States.  At  the  very  first  Chaplain  Cravath,  who  later 


PRESIDENT  GEORGE  A.  GATES 

was  the  President  of  Fisk  for  more  than  twenty-five  years,  an¬ 
nounced  That  the  institution  was  designed  to  set  the  feet  of  young 
Negroes  in  the  way  of  the  highest  education  they  might  show 
themselves  able  to  acquire  and  use.  This  policy  time  has  amply 
vindicated. 


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^4n  Opportunity  for  Fisk  University. 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


3 


It  soon  became  evident  that  the  institution  must  find  a  new 
and  permanent  site.  Fort  Gillem,  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the 
city,  was  the  location  chosen.  This  fort  was  a  part  of  the  line  of 
earthworks  used  in  the  Civil  War.  It  is  a  commanding  position 
on  an  eminence  150  feet  above  the  Cumberland  River,  and  100 
feet  above  the  main  city  of  Nashville.  The  ground  slopes  away 
on  every  side  and  the  buildings  are  conspicuous  from  every  direc¬ 
tion.  Its  thirty-five  acres  of  land  make  an  ideal  campus.  But 
how  were  these  buildings  to  be  erected?  Prof.  George  L.  White 
solved  the  problem  by  sending  out  a  company  of  “Jubilee  Singers,” 
as  he  christened  them.  They  sang  in  all  the  Northern  States,  in 
the  British  Isles,  and  on  the  Continent  of  Europe.  They  were 
gone  seven  years  and  brought  back  to  Fisk  8150, 000.00,  with  which 
Jubilee  Hall  was  builded.  Jubilee  Hall  stands  on  the  site  of  Fort 
Gillem.  The  date  on  its  corner  stone  is  1873. 

THE  COLLEGE  CURRICULUM 

is  such  that  the  graduates  are  admitted  as  post-graduates  at  Yale 
and  Harvard  without  examination,  and  in  more  instances  than 
one  those  who  have  entered  the  professional  schools  of  Harvard 
and  Yale  have  been  among  the  leaders  of  their  classes.  It  is  the 
purpose  of  the  Faculty  to  send  forth  no  one  who  is  unworthy  of 
confidence  or  incapable  of  becoming  a  leader  of  those  who  have 
never  had  such  opportunities. 

TRAINING  FOR  TEACHERS 

For  many  years  the  Normal  Department  of  Fisk  University 
did  good  work  in  training  teachers  for  the  grammar  grades.  The 
development  of  the  general  system  of  education  through  the 
South  demands  that  Fisk  should  take  a  step  in  advance.  The 
former  Normal  Department  has  been  merged  in  the  College  and 
its  courses  of  study  lengthened  by  three  years.  But  students  de¬ 
siring  to  teach  as  early  as  possible  may  arrange  their  work  in  the 
later  preparatory  years  and  early  college  years,  so  that  at  the  end 
of  the  Sophomore  year  they  may  obtain  a  Normal  Diploma.  Those 
who  continue  two  years  more  win  the  Bachelor  Degree. 

THE  MUSIC  DEPARTMENT 

might  be  expected  to  be  prominent  at  Fisk.  The  Jubilee  Singers 
gave  the  school  so  wide  and  so  enviable  a  reputation  that  appli- 


4 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


cations  come  from  all  over  the  South  to  enter  upon  the  study  of 
music  at  Fisk. 

It  is  the  policy  of  the  University  to  require  each  music  pupil 
to  take  one  or  two  literary  studies  in  addition  to  music.  The 
study  of  Music  at  Fisk  is  held  up  to  intellectual  academic  stan¬ 
dards.  This  is  true  of  all  departments  of  music  study;  but  “the 
inimitable  singing  of  the  Fisk  students”  is  very  widely  known, 
even  world-wide.  Visitors  to  Nashville  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  take  pains  not  to  miss  the  unique  experience  of  hearing 
them.  These  songs  at  Fisk  are  never  sung  for  entertainment; 
they  are  always  worship. 


STUDENTS  AT  CH/.PEL  SERVICE 

The  course  laid  down  in  the  Music  Department  requires  eight 
years  of  study.  There  are,  as  might  be  expected,  very  few  who 
complete  it.  Those  who  do  so  are  in  constant  demand.  Ten 
times  as  many  as  we  can  furnish  would  be  readily  and  profitably 
employed.  In  connection  with  this  department  recitals  are  given 
twice  each  month  under  the  leadership  of  the  head  of  the  depart¬ 
ment. 

A  choir  of  seventy-five  voices  has  a  weekly  drill  in  sacred  music 
for  the  use  of  public  worship  in  the  Sunday  services  and  the  study 
of  the  works  of  the  great  masters.  They  have  rendered  the  “Mes- 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


5 


siah,”  “Elijah,”  “Stabat  Mater,”  “St.  Paul,”  Coleridge  Taylor’s 
“Hiawatha,”  and  many  others. 

Nearly  every  year  noted  musicians  from  the  North  at  a  nomi¬ 
nal  cost  afford  the  University  the  benefit  of  recitals  upon  the  piano 
and  organ.  He  is  a  dull  pupil  who  spends  much  time  in  the  musical 
atmosphere  of  Fisk  University  without  rising  above  the  frivolous, 
not  to  say  degrading,  music  that  is  popular  North  as  well  as  South. 
Indeed  “coon  song”  and  “rag  time”  are  virtually  never  heard  on 
the  Fisk  campus. 


LIVINGSTONE  HALL 


THE  TEACHING  FORCE 

Graduates  of  Amherst,  Ann  Arbor,  Carlton,  Columbia,  Dart¬ 
mouth,  Harvard,  Mt.  Holyoke,  Oberlin,  Smith,  Syracuse,  Well¬ 
esley,  Wesleyan,  Yale  and  other  well-known  colleges  have  been 
upon  the  Faculty.  These  teachers  have  been  actuated  by  a  mis¬ 
sionary  and  philanthropic  spirit,  which  has  held  subordinate  the 
matter  of  emolument.  There  are  also  upon  the  Faculty  a  number 
of  Fisk’s  own  graduates,  men  and  women  of  such  character,  abil¬ 
ity,  scholastic  acquirements  and  pedagogic  qualification,  that 
they  hold  high  place  in  the  body  of  teachers. 


6 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


THE  STUDENT  BODY 

of  Fisk  comes  from  a  score  and  a  half  of  States.  The  secondary 
schools  in  the  South  are  doing  better  work  year  by  year,  so  that 
new  students  more  frequently  than  formerly  enter  Freshman  or 
advanced  preparatory  classes.  The  life  of  a  student  at  Fisk  is 
a  strenuous  one.  He  is  usually  poor — often  very  poor.  He  works 
from  October  to  the  middle  of  June  at  his  books  and  the  tasks 
assigned  him  by  the  University.  During  his  summer  “vacation” 


JUBILEE  HALL 


he  is  found  as  porter  on  the  sleeping  or  dining  car,  a  waiter  at  a 
summer  resort,  working  at  some  trade  with  which  he  may  be 
familiar,  coal  mining,  teaching  school — in  fact,  anything  that  will 
bring  him  an  honest  penny.  To  secure  this  work  he  usually  has 
to  incur  the  expense  of  going  North,  as  wages  are  exceedingly 
low  for  unskilled  labor  in  the  South.  For  this  reason  many  a 
time  a  student  at  Fisk  does  not  see  his  parents  for  six  or  seven 
years,  a  hardship  peculiarly  trying  to  a  race  whose  family  ties  are 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


7 


so  strong.  The  pride  of  humble  parents,  who  by  great  self-denials 
are  able  to  see  their  sons  and  daughters  take  their  Bachelor  Diplo¬ 
mas  at  Fisk  University,  is  beautiful.  The  receptiveness  and  re¬ 
sponsiveness  of  the  student  body  is  a  constant  inspiration  to  the 
teacher.  As  in  every  school,  there  are  those  who  are  slow  to 
learn  and  not  a  few  have  to  give  up  in  despair  before  the  course 
is  finished.  Many  of  these,  however,  remain  long  enough  to 
catch  the  spirit  of  the  institution  and  go  out  to  do  good  work 
among  their  people.  The  University  is  dissatisfied  with  its  work 
unless  each  graduate  has  a  distinct  and  avowed  purpose  to  help 
his  fellow  men. 


CHRISTIAN  LEADERSHIP 

In  fact,  the  efforts  of  the  whole  faculty  are  focused  on  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  strong  Christian  character  and  fitness  for  leader¬ 
ship.  With  this  in  view  the  Boarding  Department  is  conducted 
as  nearly  as  possible  on  the  lines  of  a  Christian  home.  The  dis¬ 
cipline,  as  far  as  possible,  is  that  of  a  family.  The  student  or¬ 
ganizations  are  also  used  for  this  purpose,  including  not  only  the 
Literary  Societies,  but  the  Christian  Associations.  In  the  final 
religious  meetings  before  Commencement  each  senior,  almost  with¬ 
out  exception,  tells  of  the  plan  he  has  formulated  to  carry  out 
the  underlying  principle  of  the  school:  “Not  to  be  ministered 
unto  but  to  minister ;”  and  the  other  motto  of  the  University, 
oftenest  on  the  lips  of  President  Cravath:  “Be  not  overcome  of 
evil,  but  overcome  evil  with  good.” 

Dr.  Washington  Gladden,  who  was  Commencement  orator  in 
1903,  after  listening  to  the  six  representatives  of  a  college  class 
of  twenty-two,  wrote:  “I  believe  in  the  absolute  necessity  of  the 
higher  education  for  the  Negro;  and  I  believe  that  the  higher  ed¬ 
ucation  which  he  receives  should  be  the  highest  education— that 
the  equipment  which  we  give  to  the  leaders  of  the  Negro  race 
should  be  the  best  possible.  The  scholars  should  be  good  scholars; 
their  lawyers  should  know  just  as  much  law  and  just  as  much 
logic  and  just  as  much  history  and  political  science  as  white  lawyers 
know;  their  preachers  should  be  men  of  power  and  their  journalists 
men  of  breadth.  The  kind  of  men  that  Fisk  is  sending  out,  as  I 
believe,  will  meet  this  demand.  I  have  certainly  never  heard  a 
better  Commencement  programme  in  any  college  than  the  one  I 
listened  to  last  summer  in  Nashville.” 


8 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


FOUNDATION  AND  SUPPORT 

Fisk  was  founded  by  the  American  Missionary  Association  and 
has  been  largely  sustained  by  it.  Although  this  Association  is  sup¬ 
ported  chiefly  by  Congregationalists,  the  policy  of  Fisk  is  thoroughly 
unsectarian;  it  is  formally  and  actually  undenominational.  The 
Association  has  erected  nearly  all  the  twelve  buildings,  and  each 
year  a  substantial  appropriation  from  its  funds  is  made  for  the 
support  of  the  University. 

The  receipts  from  tuition  fees  increase  each  year,  but  still  they 
pay  only  about  20  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  carrying  on  the  work. 
Negro  youths  are  not  usually  able  to  pay  large  tuition  fees. 


CHASE  HALL  AND  GYMNASIUM 


The  boarding  department,  with  nearly  three  hundred  boarders, 
virtually  supports  itself.  The  Endowment  Fund  is  about  $75,000. 
About  one-third  of  our  annual  expenses,  that  is  $20,000,  must  be 
solicited  at  the  North. 


IN  GENERAL 

The  Negro  problem  is  the  perplexing  question  of  the  hour.  In 
the  solution  of  this  problem  Fisk  University  has  a  large  share. 
A  map  of  the  United  States  dotted  by  the  names  of  places  where 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


9 


Fisk  graduates  are  working  is  an  interesting  sociological  study. 
They  are  found  most  densely  congregated  where  they  are  most 
needed. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  GRADUATES 

During  its  existence  Fisk  has  sent  out  850  graduates  from  its 
different  departments.  We  keep  in  close  touch  with  our  Alumni 
and  so  are  able  to  show  that  our  graduates  are  working  along  the 
lines  for  which  they  have  been  educated,  to  a  larger  extent  than 
is  true  of  institutions  of  like  grade,  North  or  South,  where  the 
student  body  is  made  up  of  white  men  and  women.  The  reason 


for  this  is  apparent  to  those  who  recognize  the  inevitable  work¬ 
ing  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  The  vocations  to  which 
the  College  and  Education  courses  lead  are  not  overcrowded  in 
the  case  of  Negroes.  The  demand  for  their  services  is  far  in  ex¬ 
cess  of  the  supply,  and  must  be  so  for  years  to  come.  The  social 
conditions  of  the  South,  separating  the  Negro  from  the  white, 
afford  the  Negro  an  opportunity  among  his  own  that  would  have 
been  denied  him  had  he  to  come  in  competition  with  the  educated 
white  man.  As  teacher,  doctor,  lawyer,  dentist,  druggist,  business 
man,  educated  farmer,  and  clergyman,  he  easily  succeeds  in  se¬ 
curing  a  livelihood,  and  has  an  opportunity  to  become  a  leader 


10 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


to  the  measure  of  his  ability.  To  read  each  year  the  revised  ros¬ 
ter  of  Fisk  graduates  is  to  find  ample  justification  of  the  far¬ 
sighted  statesmanship  of  its  founders. 


GRADUATES 

Up  to  July  1,  1911,  there  had  been  graduated  from  all  depart¬ 
ments  850  individuals.  Of  these  there  have  been: 


Teachers _ 545,  64%  of  all  graduates. 

Ministers _ 25 

Doctors _  54 

Lawyers _  17 

In  business _  24 


Of  these  54  have  been  in  the  same  occupation  from  25  to  30 
years,  and  six  over  30  years.  Of  the  class  of  1911,  34  in  number, 
10  are  taking  graduate  work  in  Northern  universities. 

Here  it  will  be  seen  that  the  vocation  which  is  most  potent  in 
shaping  communities  is  most  often  entered  upon.  It  is  estimated 
that  from  15,000  to  20,000  colored  youth  are  yearly  taught  by 
those  who  have  received  their  equipment  to  teach  at  Fisk  Uni¬ 
versity.  All  through  the  Southland  are  schools,  both  in  city  and 
country,  patterned,  as  far  as  possible,  after  the  alma  mater  that 
has  given  its  ideals  to  the  teachers  of  these  schools. 

The  ministers  educated  at  Fisk  University  are  found  in  all 
evangelical  denominations.  They  hold  no  second  places  in  their 
churches.  A  writer  in  the  “Outlook,”  the  son  of  its  editor-in-chief, 
after  a  careful  study  of  church  conditions  in  the  South,  wrote  that 
he  found  no  better  organized  church  than  one  presided  over  by 
a  graduate  of  Fisk,  who  was  also  an  honor  man  at  Yale  Divinity 
School. 

But  perhaps  the  most  pervasive  and  beneficent  influence  ex¬ 
erted  by  Fisk  University  has  come  through  the  refined  Christian 
homes  presided  over  by  liberally  educated  men  and  women.  Quite 
naturally  those  who  are  associated  in  college  and  school  form  life 
alliances.!  Greatly  does  Fisk  rejoice  |in  a  son  whose  rank  as  a 
scholar  along  sociological  |  lines  has>4  world- wide  ^recognition;  in 
another  who  is  dean  of  /an  important  department  in  a  well-known 
university;  in  others  who  as  clergymen  have  large  following  and 
wield  wide  influence;  in  others  who  as  physicians  have  large  prac- 


FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


11 


tice  and  are  maintaining  high  ethical  standards  in  a  noble  pro¬ 
fession;  in  others  who  have  won  success  as  lawyers;  but  even 
more  than  these  are  they  who,  like  the  gifted  wife  of  the  Principal 
of  Tuskegee,  are  at  the  head  of  Christian  homes.  In  no  other 
way  than  through  such  homes  is  the  welfare  of  the  Negro  of  Amer¬ 
ica  to  be  secured.  Many  such  there  are  which  will  bear  compari¬ 
son  with  the  homes  of  any  people  on  earth. 

Toward  the  ultimate  status  of  the  Negroes  in  America  Fisk  is 
constantly  a  real  contribution. 


SEVENTEENTH  AVENUE  LOOKING  TOWARD  JUBILEE 

THE  NEW  ERA  OF  FISK  UNIVERSITY 

[An  editorial  in  the  “Outlook,”  April  16,  1910.] 

Agreement  of  Southern  and  Northern  opinion  upon  the  equal 
need  of  the  higher  education  for  the  White  and  the  Negro  was 
amply  evidenced  at  the  inauguration,  on  March  31st,  of  Dr. 
George  A.  Gates  as  President  of  Fisk  University,  at  Nashville, 
Tennessee,  the  oldest  and  best  known  of  the  twenty  negro  col¬ 
leges.  “I  am  glad/'  said  Mayor  Howse,  of  Nashville,  “that  the 
time  has  come  when  the  white  race  is  ready  to  take  the  colored 
race  by  the  hand  and  build  it  up,  educationally  and  financially. 
In  this  Republic  we  must  live  for  each  other  under  one  God  and 
one  flag.”  Addressing  President  Gates,  he  said:  “President 
Cravath  and  President  Merrill,  your  predecessors,  have  done 
much  for  Nashville.  You  are  Nashville’s  President  as  well  as 
Fisk’s.”  Speaking  for  the  Nashville  Board  of  Trade,  Mr.  James 
Palmer  followed  him,  saying,  “We  will  extend  a  helping  hand  to 
you  when  you  need  it.”  Especially  significant  was  the  testimony 
quoted  by  President  Gates,  in  his  inaugural,  from  leading  jurists 


3  0112  1 


05725110 


a 


12  FISK  UNIVERSITY  IN  1911 


of  Tennessee,  including  Judge  Lurton,  recently  made  Justice  of 
the  Federal  Supreme  Court:  “We  hold  it  our  duty  to  give  the 
Negro  all  the  education  he  can  take  and  use.  Then,  if  we  white 
people  cannot  keep  ahead  of  him  as  he  moves  forward,  it  will  be¬ 
come  us  to  follow  after  on  the  level  suited  to  lower  capacities.” 
The  common  interest  for  which  intelligent  promoters  of  industrial 
and  of  higher  education,  sometimes  misrepresented  as  antagon¬ 
istic,  co-operate  like  scissor  blades  was  effectively  demonstrated 
by  Dr.  Washington.  With  the  greeting  he  brought  from  the 
Tuskegee  Institute  he  presented  from  an  Alabama  benefactor  of 
Tuskegee  a  gift  of  a  thousand  dollars  to  Fisk.  Representatives 
of  some  twenty  colleges  and  universities,  Northern  and  Southern, 
were  present,  for  whom  Chancellor  Kirkland,  of  Vanderbilt  Uni¬ 
versity,  Nashville,  spoke  with  rare  elegance  of  form  as  well  as 
solidity  and  breadth  of  thought.  The  inimitable  feature  of  the  day 
was  the  vocal  music  of  the  Fisk  Jubilee  Singers.  It  was  out  of  the 
earnings  of  the  Jubilee  Singers — over  a  hundred  thousand  dol¬ 
lars — that  the  Jubilee  Hall  was  built  on  the  Fisk  campus  in  1875. 
Fisk  needs  and  deserves  a  generous  endowment  to  crown  its  his¬ 
tory  of  patient  work  and  sacrifice.  The  coming  of  Dr.  Gates,  a 
man  of  broad  vision,  warm  heart,  cool  head,  high  courage,  and 
genial  humor,  with  twenty  years  of  successful  experience  as  col¬ 
lege  president  in  Iowa  and  California,  hopefully  initiates  a  new 
and  prosperous  era. 


